Saturday, June 16, 2012

Keith Kindaid Auto - The new heir apparent?

Having been a Devils fan longer than Brodeur has been with the franchise has allowed me to see many back-up goalies come and go and even more prospect goaltenders never touch NHL ice. Since we drafted Martin Brodeur in 1990, we have drafted 16 other goalies and signed many other undrafted goalies. Keith Kinkaid was one of the undrafted goalies. Of the 16 drafted goalies, many have found other homes outside the Devils organization. You may not know this but Jets goalie Chris Mason was a Devils draft pick, so was Scott Clemmensen, and Mike Dunham. Meanwhile picks like Ari Ahonen of the KHL never got a chance because there was just Marty and someone who backs up Marty for nearly 2 decades.

With Marty near the very end of his career, any goalie in the Devils system must be tasting opportunity sooner or later and as it stands right now our 4 in the system are Keith Kinkaid, Scott Wedgewood, Jeff Frazee and Maxime Clermont.

11/12 ITG Between the Pipes

Today I will focus on Keith Kinkaid. This was a goalie we HAD to have. Actually, Lou had to have him. Keith put up some amazing numbers while playing for Union College in the ECAC (NCAA). His second year of college saw him go 25-10-2 with a 1.99 GAA. He finished second in league wins, gaa, save and shutouts.

This past season why playing for a bad Albany Devils team, he still was a respectable 17-20-3 with a GAA of 2.94 and a .904 save percentage and 3 shutouts. Do I think he will be filling in Marty's shoes very soon? Probably not, but he could get a shot at being the number one in the next couple seasons and if he continues to grow and improve who knows how good he COULD be. Clermont and Wedgewood might have been skills and abilities than Kinkaid but skill only goes so far and hard-work can be a difference maker. Either way, with this many goalies in the system I am confident when the best player in Devils history hangs them up we will have some good talented kids to help maintain a winning tradition.